Part I: Theorizing on the Process of Parenting
1.Parenting Across the Lifespan: Some Personal and Conceptual
Musings / Steven Tuber, PhD, ABPP
2.Not Your Mother's Identity: Good-Enough Parenting in the Age of
Maximization / Lisa Samstag, PhD and Nick Samstag, PhD
3.On Being Essential: Parenting, Immigration, and Acculturation /
Diana Punales Morejon, PhD
4.We Are Always Essential / Ken Barish, PhD
Part II: Parenting and Its Impact on Clinical Work
5.The Therapist’s Experience as Parent: The Complex Interaction
Between Parent Process and Clinical Work / Leslie Gibson, PhD
6.Parental Humility / Kevin Meehan, PhD and Elizabeth Zick, PhD
7.Rage, Forgiveness, and Acceptance: Parenting Through Difficult
Moments / Paul Donahue, PhD
8.“I Can’t Stand Her”: The Role Of Hatred in Development / Marsha
Levy Warren, PhD
Part III: The Impact of Clinical Work on Parenting
9.Transformative Aspects of Our Own Analyses and Their Resonance in
Our Parenting and Work with Patients / Lauren Levine, PhD
10.Why Did You Choose Me?: Some Thoughts on the Wish to Have a
Child and the Child’s Wished-For Parent / Banu Seckin-Ertal,
PhD
11.Self-Disclosure, Reverie, and Countertransference as Essential
Aspects of Psychotherapy / Monique S. Bowen, PhD
12.Becoming a Grandparent: Memories, Identifications,
and Reenactments / Jerry Meyer, MD
13.Gardening in the Softball League: How Teachers Parent / Benjamin
Harris, PhD
Steven Tuber, PhD, ABPP, is professor of psychology and Director of Clinical Training in the doctoral program in clinical psychology of the City College of New York, where he has taught for thirty years. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including two on child therapy and one on projective testing.
In this book, the contributors expertly argue that successful
parents realize the objectives of parenting depend on a host of
factors, including the normative developmental needs of children
and the contexts surrounding families. As children mature or
familial contexts change, successful parents modify their
objectives to match new conditions. The following statement appears
within the work’s introduction: ‘This book has, at its core
paradigm, an intrinsic paradox: while we must become essential to
our children as early as possible in their lives in order to help
them create an internalized experience of being valued, we must
simultaneously give up this exclusive essentialness over time if we
want them to develop a sense of autonomy and individuality.’
Thirteen chapters by clinicians and parents thoroughly explore
topics such as various stages of parent roles, the essence of
maternal/paternal identities, the stages of pride parents
experience, the impacts felt by clinicians with clients dealing
with parental issues, and the ability to recognize grandparenting
as an opportunity to reenact and rework the original essentialness
paradox. These topics are methodically explored with the central
theme of how parents can maintain a continuity of purpose as they
face normative developmental changes in their roles as parents.
Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
*CHOICE*
Overall, I enjoyed most of the chapters in this book. I am not a
psychoanalyst and lean more toward cognitive-behavioral approaches
to therapy but I have not forgotten my psychodynamic roots and
appreciate the reminder that while symptom relief is important,
exploring relational issues and their effects on an unconscious
level can contribute much to a client’s improvement. I liked
learning about the effects parenting has had on other clinician
parents. I especially liked being reintroduced to psychoanalysis as
a more practical practice. Several years ago when my son with ADHD
was an adolescent, I went to a psychoanalytic therapist for a year.
It did not help me with the struggles I was having. I became very
disillusioned about that form of therapy then and consciously chose
to move in the direction of more immediate symptom relief in my own
practice. In light of what I have just read, I would say it was a
case of me as clinician being affected by my experience as parent,
the implications of which I had not previously taken the time to
consider. I feel encouraged to revisit this decision.
*PsycCRITIQUES*
[A] well-conceived and well-executed volume.... I want to highlight
that Tuber’s conceptual framework holds considerable untapped
potential…. Clearly, Tuber’s original contribution of a
developmental line in parenting has potential in our clinical work
as a signpost for termination. I believe it also holds promise as a
perspective applicable in appreciating other intimate
relationships, such as pair bonds between adults. All who are
familiar with Tuber’s writing will recognize in his rendering of
his memory of dancing with his father the playfulness and fluidity
that informs his parenting, his clinical work, and his
teaching.
*Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy*
“What an extraordinarily important—and well done—book. Therapists
are so inclined to focus on bad parenting that this examination of
what parenting should be, without imposing rose-colored lenses or
glossing over the complexities, is truly a landmark
contribution. Bravo!”
*Paul Wachtel, Distinguished Professor, City College of New
York*
“Parenting: Contemporary Clinical Perspectives is just a wonderful
book. Despite the fact that parenting is a nearly ubiquitous human
experience, the study of the experience of parenting, and its
effect on a therapist's development as a person and as a clinician
have been all but absent from the dynamic psychotherapy literature
(or any psychotherapy literature, for that matter!). Steven Tuber’s
collection of courageous, thoughtful, and creative reflections
on parenting and parenthood by experienced clinicians not only
breaks the mold by bringing together the professional and personal
in poignant, deeply revealing, and imaginative ways, but also sets
the gold standard for explorations of the complexity and joy of
becoming essential to another. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
It's the kind of book we hunger for as clinicians, full of life,
wisdom, and humanity.”
*Arietta Slade, Yale Child Study Center*
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